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Reeling from the worst attack on American soil since 9/11, the US authorities believe at this stage that Omar Mateen was probably a deranged lone gunman who simply took the Isis name as a badge rather than being a trained operative of the group.

FBI director James Comey has defended his agency’s handling of an investigation into Mateen in 2013 and 2014, saying agents had found nothing to corroborate Mateen’s claimed ties to several terrorist groups. Mr Comey said investigators had found no sign that Sunday’s deadly attack was directed by an organised terror cell.

Investigators are looking at reports that Mateen visited gay clubs and was using dating apps. According to one patron interviewed by the Orlando Sentinel, Mateen had been a frequent visitor to Pulse. He is also reported to have had a profile on the gay dating app Jack’d. A regular user told the Los Angeles Times that Mateen had messaged him via the app on and off for a year, although they had yet to meet in person. (FT)

In the news

German ten-year bond yields turn negative Germany has set the pace in a historic rally in government bonds, with the yield on its ten-year bond falling into negative territory for the first time. An escalation of stimulus policies from the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank this year, low inflation and simmering anxiety over the outlook for the global economy is driving investors into the safest and most liquid sovereign bond markets despite the vanishing returns they offer. (FT)

Isis claims responsibility for Paris murders The French government has denounced “an abject terrorist act” after an attacker killed a police commander and his wife at their home outside Paris. The 42-year-old was stabbed to death as he arrived home at about 8.30pm on Monday in Magnanville, north-west of Paris. The officer’s wife, an Interior Ministry employee, was killed after the assailant barricaded himself in the couple’s home. Elite police forces then shot the knifeman and saved the couple’s three-year-old child. Amaq, the Isis news agency, said that an Isis fighter had carried out the attack. (FT)

Microsoft pays $26bn for LinkedIn The all-cash offer, which values LinkedIn’s equity at $28.2bn and subtracts its $2bn in cash, is Microsoft’s largest acquisition ever and will allow the software company to link the professional network with its intelligent digital assistant, Cortana, and its customer relationship management software. (FT)

StanChart chief ‘angry’ over ethics lapses Bill Winters has taken steps to stamp out a “cancer” of complacency and lax controls that he blames for recent misconduct among senior staff at the emerging markets bank. The bank, which is listed in London but mostly operates across Asia, the Middle East and Africa, came through the 2008 financial crisis relatively unscathed but has suffered a tough few years after being fined by US regulators for sanctions breaches and incurring heavy losses on risky loans. (FT)

Trump bars Washington Post Donald Trump has revoked the press credentials of the Washington Post after apparently taking issue with a report critical of his remarks about Barack Obama and the Orlando shooting. “The presumptive GOP nominee has never been a fan of reporters who ask him tough questions (or simply dare not to take him at his word), but this marks an unprecedented escalation in his war with the political press corps,” commented Slate’s Josh Voorhees. (Slate)

US companies sign up to pay review pledge More than two dozen companies including Amazon, PepsiCo and Dow Chemical have signed a White House pledge to conduct an annual gender pay analysis aimed at eliminating inequitable compensation, the Obama administration said. The 28 companies agreed to review their hiring and promotion processes and embed equal-pay efforts in other workplace initiatives. (WSJ)

US overtakes UK as world’s leading ‘soft power’ Barack Obama’s diplomatic moves in Iran, Cuba and Asia have helped to shift global opinion in favour of the superpower, according to a survey compiled by Portland, the London PR company, in partnership with Facebook. The report, which was cited last year by David Cameron as proof of Britain’s global influence, warns that the UK could drift further down the rankings if it leaves the EU and loses influence in Europe. (FT)

It's a big day for

Chinese equities MSCI, the index provider, will announce on Tuesday evening in New York whether it has decided to include China’s mainland-listed “A-shares” in its emerging markets indices. Coming almost a year to the day since mainland markets peaked, inclusion would mark something of an international rehabilitation for mainland stocks — but another delay might simply be greeted with a shrug. (FT)

Asean Foreign ministers from China and the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations gather today in Kunming, in south-west China. Their minds, as ever, will be on the nerve-jangling South China Sea, where China continues to turn disputed features into man-made islands. (Economist)

Led Zeppelin Two years after being sued for copyright infringement, members of Led Zeppelin will be climbing a stairway to a courthouse in an effort to prove that they did not steal from another song in writing their signature hit “Stairway to Heaven”. (The Wrap)

Food for thought

Greek bank governor calls for new deal Greece’s creditors should rework a core element of Athens’ new bailout because ambitious budget surplus targets agreed with the leftwing Syriza government are “unrealistic and socially unattainable”, says Yannis Stournaras. (FT)

Orlando massacre is a hate crime With 50 dead and many more injured, the Orlando shootings were “nothing less than horrific. Yet they also show that the case for LGBT rights has never been more critical,” writes Hugo Greenhalgh. “The fact that people still hate LGBT people does not surprise but it still shocks. Whether the gunman was motivated by a hatred of homosexuals or out of religious beliefs is almost beside the point. The fact that hatred exists at all is the point.” (FT)

Global gun death rates compared The mass shooting in Orlando was appalling in scale: 49 killed in a single attack. But it’s not unusual for dozens of Americans to be killed by guns in a single day. This level of violence makes the US an extreme outlier when measured against the experience of other advanced countries. (The Upshot)

Stressed generation We are the distracted generations, wasting hours a day checking irrelevant emails and intrusive social media accounts, suggests Padraig Belton. This “always on” culture — exacerbated by the smartphone — is actually making us more stressed and less productive, according to some reports. (BBC)

Bird brains Some can count, many make tools and others recognise themselves in the mirror. But how birds pull off such complex feats with so little brain matter has long had scientists scratching their heads. Now an answer may finally be at hand. Researchers who studied 28 bird species found that songbirds and parrots can have as many, and sometimes more, neurons packed into their brains than mammals — even monkeys and apes. (Guardian)

Video of the day

Who was Orlando shooter Omar Mateen? The FT’s Barney Jopson reports from the attacker’s home town of Fort Pierce, Florida, as details emerge about what happened at the Orlando nightclub. (FT)